Watching the watchers
Lack of cooperation on supervision of sovereign credit raters is undermining Rio+20’s pursuit of new sustainable development goals… When Cyprus announced in June 2012 that it was edging closer to being the latest Eurozone country to seek bailout money, the fragile nature of
First time in the world, CSR is included in an enactment
Come Monsoon session, the 56-year-old Companies Bill incorporating social responsibility obligations on corporate houses will be rewritten. Although the government, amid stiff resistance from the corporate world, is not making the CSR obligation compulsory, it is putting a moral obligation on companies to
When do we learn to kill?
As parent to a two-year-old, I very often find myself at random toy shops”by random I mean ‘non-branded’, the equivalent of the local kirana store. And more often than not, the category of ‘toys’ that is most prominently displayed is guns. I suspect
Prepare to pay Environment Cess in Maharashtra
Maharashtra’s environment department is preparing a proposal to levy tax on environment polluters. The proposal, say sources, is almost ready and will soon be tabled before the state cabinet. As per the proposal, any activity that affects the environment, like stone-crushing, mining, vehicular
Tata Steel Rural Development Society: Creating sustainable means of living
Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) was established in 1979 to engage in various social development programmes in the rural areas within which Tata Steel operated its business, specifically the mines and collieries spread over Jharkhand (until 2000, a part of the state
Companies Bill report ready, committee wants compulsory CSR
Mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend would become a law for the first time anywhere in the world, if the recommendations of the Parliament’s standing committee on finance, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, are accepted by the Lok Sabha. The
Social audit of welfare schemes not taken seriously, says Jairam Ramesh
In an interaction with media representatives in Imphal, capital of Manipur, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh turned the spotlight on state governments for failing to implement social audits of key welfare schemes, several of these with an outlay of millions of dollars. In
Sristi: Holding hands with the grassroots innovator
[dropcap size=big]S[/dropcap]RISTI – Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions – came into existence in 1993, as a result of the felt need for institutional support to the activities of the Honey Bee Network. This network, with presence in more
UNEP registered 8,740 activities for the World Environment Day
‘This year, the World Environment Day theme is Green Economy: Does it include you? This highlights that the green economy is an essential rethink to the way we do business, if we are to create a brighter future. But more importantly, the theme
Forest clearance will not be on lines of environmental clearance
The suggestion to form forest advisory committees (FAC) to speed up the pace of ‘forest clearance’ process has been rejected by the environment ministry. The group of ministers (GoM) headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had asked the environment ministry to set up